The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and Ulster Bank residential market survey for September 2017 has revealed that house price expectations was +28%, while sales expectation stood at +23%.

However, the data for newly agreed sales (-12%), new buyer enquiries (-16%) and new instructions (-6%) all moved into negative territory.

Samuel Dickey, residential property spokesman at RICS, said: “Overall, the latest survey paints a relatively upbeat picture for the Northern Ireland housing market.

“Indeed, Northern Ireland and Scotland are the only parts of the UK where surveyors are confident that prices will rise meaningfully over the near-term.

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“With key indicators for the local economy continuing to show strong growth in the private sector, this optimism is perhaps unsurprising.

“The one key challenge, though, remains supply, with surveyors continuing to indicate that availability of stock remains a problem.”

Sean Murphy, managing director of personal banking at Ulster Bank, added: “As we move into the final quarter of 2017, what is clear is that this year to date has been a reasonably positive one for the Northern Ireland housing market.

“Our own experience at Ulster Bank suggests that this positive activity trend continued into the third quarter, and surveyors remain confident in relation to the outlook for the final three months of the year.”